Free Republic

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A massive oil spill discovered earlier this month at Prudhoe Bay is the largest ever on Alaska's North Slope, officials said Friday. Between 201,000 and 267,000 gallons of crude leaked from a ruptured transit line onto the snow-covered tundra, according to an official estimate of the spill. That amount far surpasses the 38,000 gallons spilled in 2001, officials said. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons when it ran aground in Prince William Sound in 1989. “I can confirm it's the largest spill of crude oil on the North Slope that we have record of,”...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante paid a record $263,000 fine for violating state limits on accepting campaign donations, California's Fair Political Practices Commission said today. The state's political watchdog agency charged in a civil lawsuit filed in January that Bustamante and his supporters improperly moved $3.8 million between campaign committees during the recall election in an effort to skirt contribution limits. Although FPPC officials have said Bustamante faced fines of as much as $9 million, the $263,000 settlement is still the largest ever paid by a candidate.

U.S. Charges 3 in Massive ID Fraud U.S. Charges 3 in Largest Identity-Theft Ring in American History; Info Taken From Over 30,000 N E W Y O R K, Nov. 25 — Federal authorities charged three men with orchestrating a massive identity-theft scheme in which credit information was stolen from more than 30,000 victims. Manhattan U.S. Attorney James Comey said the arrests announced Monday mark the largest identity theft case in U.S. history, with initial losses pegged at $2.7 million and growing. "With a few keystrokes, these men essentially picked the pockets of tens of thousands of Americans and, in...